Center has hit its stride in investing in Arkansas-based businesses

Little Rock trucker Trey Alexander was ready to go out on his own and start a transportation company but didn’t quite know where to turn. He found help, as hundreds of others did last year, at the Arkansas Small Business Technology and Development Center (ASBTDC).

“I was tired of working under someone else,” Alexander says, noting he is the first person in his family to own a business. “I’ve never owned anything in my life. I am happy to be a business owner.”

The center helped Alexander secure a loan and establish a line of credit to finance the business.

Lifting startup businesses like Alexander’s is a primary focus of the center, which last year for the first time busted through the $100 million ceiling on investing in Arkansasbased businesses.

It helped new entrepreneurs infuse $102 million into the state economy in 2022. The organization works statewide with 28 consultants at 10 offices, including a lead center on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus, who helped 264 clients with 408 funded projects last year.

“Helping businesses access capital is an ASBTDC strength,” Director Laura Fine said. “For the last few years, our team has had a ‘stretch’ goal to break $100 million.”

Business-support efforts include a team of market researchers who provide industry insight to help entrepreneurs create a business plan, apply for funding, learn how to use social media to market products and choose the best site for their businesses.

Over the past 10 years, the center network assisted Arkansas small businesses in obtaining more than $804 million, efforts that have produced 18,132 jobs.

The business-support organization, Fine said, “has cultivated a reputation as trusted advisers specializing in helping clients obtain the capital funding they need to start or grow their businesses.”

While climbing to new investment heights in 2022, the center also transitioned back to its core mission of helping create and sustain smallbusiness growth. About 90% of the $102 million in capital investment was dedicated to new companies, not efforts to keep alive companies threatened by the pandemic.

The organization provided fewer loans last year than in 2021 but they were for larger amounts and had a more profound impact in the smallbusiness community.

For example, the average capital investment per project last year reached $250,000 compared with an average of just more than $134,000 in 2021. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the average capital investment per project was just above $88,000.

The center devoted investments in 2020 and 2021 to rescuing existing businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic. Last year the organization returned to supporting business creation.

“In my opinion, 2022 was back to business as normal after a few years of covid,” said Brandon Horvath, who leads capital investments at the organization. “We need people to grow and start businesses

to build the state’s economy.”

The dollar value of projects in any given year is wide and investments can vary from a few thousand dollars to multimillion-dollar deals.

Besides UALR’s main offices, the Arkansas Small Business Technology and Development Center has support centers in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Magnolia, Monticello, Mountain Home, Pine Bluff, Russellville and West Memphis, and every regional site is located on a university campus to coordinate activities.

PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Arthur Orduna, the new executive director of the Little Rock Venture Center, will be the featured speaker Monday at the next Power Up luncheon sponsored by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Orduna will highlight the Venture Center’s efforts to spark economic development and job growth in the region and state. He also will highlight the Venture Center’s network of industry leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators that collaborate to build on Arkansas’ reputation as a tech hub with a dynamic future.

The speech is scheduled for noon at the Clinton Presidential Center and is open to the public.

Orduna joined the entrepreneurial support organization earlier this year.

Since 2016, The Venture Center has fueled innovation in Arkansas through accelerators that attract entrepreneurs from across the globe who focus on financial services and community banking products and services.

Power Up is a quarterly series highlighting economicdevelopment efforts in Central Arkansas. More information and registration are available at littlerockchamber.com.

BLACK BUSINESS TOUR

ReMix Ideas, an entrepreneurial support organization with a focus on Black-owned businesses, is beginning its second Black ownership bus tour Monday, with five stops in Northwest Arkansas and ending up in Little Rock.

The Northwest Arkansas tour gives city leaders, lenders, entrepreneurs, small business owners and other key stakeholders the opportunity to connect and engage with Black business owners in the region.

Stops will include Fayetteville Monday; Springdale on Tuesday; Bentonville and Rogers on Wednesday; Fort Smith on Thursday; and a wrap-up visit to Little Rock on Friday.

Lenders and other organizations that provide capital and technical support to small businesses will learn about the challenges and opportunities for scaling Blackowned companies in the region.

“Now more than ever, I am hopeful about what we can achieve together,” said Benito Lubazibwa, ReMix’s chief executive officer. “I am also reminded of an African proverb that says, ‘If you want to travel fast, travel alone. If you want to travel far, travel together.’ Advancing Black entrepreneurship is an ambitious and necessary journey. We will certainly travel farther together.”

The tour includes pitch competitions for businesses to compete for a $5,000 business grant in each city. More information is available at remixideas.com.

Column ideas or recommendations? Thoughts or musings that need pursuing? Contact me at amoreau@adgnewsroom.com or at (501)378-3567.